Galen and the beginnings of Western physiology -- Ibn al-Nafis, the pulmonary circulation, and the Islamic Golden Age -- Torricelli and the ocean of air: the first measurement of barometric pressure -- Robert Boyle's landmark book of 1660 with the first experiments on rarified air -- The original presentation of Boyle's Law -- Robert Hooke: Early respiratory physiologist, polymath, and mechanical genius -- Marcello Malpighi and the discovery of the pulmonary capillaries and alveoli -- Stephen Hales: neglected respiratory physiologist -- Joseph Black, carbon dioxide, latent heat, and the beginnings of the discovery of the respiratory gases -- Carl Wilhelm Scheele, the discoverer of oxygen, and a very productive chemist -- Joseph Priestley, oxygen, and the Enlightenment -- The collaboration of Antoine and Marie-Anne Lavoisier and the first measurements of human oxygen consumption -- Henry Cavendish, hydrogen, water, and the weight of the earth -- Humphry Davy, nitrous oxide, the Pneumatic Institution, and the Royal Institution -- Denis Jourdanet (1815-1892) and the early recognition of the role of hypoxia at high altitude -- Centenary of the Anglo-American High Altitude Expedition to Pikes Peak -- Alexander M. Kellas and the physiological challenge of Mount Everest -- Ravenhill and his contributions to mountain sickness -- George I. Finch and his pioneering use of oxygen for climbing at extreme altitudes -- Joseph Barcroft's studies of high altitude physiology -- The physiological legacy of the Fenn, Rahn and Otis school -- The physiological challenges of the 1952 Copenhagen poliomyelitis epidemic and a renaissance in clinical respiratory physiology -- Historical aspects of the early Soviet/Russian manned space program.   .